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3 Epic Casino Heists That Didn’t Quite Go As Planned

Hollywood make it sound romantic and illustrious – the sophisticated criminal pulling off the great casino heist with his mates – 11 of them for the most part, but the reality is quite far removed from this world we’re entertained by of an evening. Here are three infamous casino heists that failed rather epicly and were destined to do so before they were even thought about.

“The Sock Cheaters”
Sounding more like something from a classic 60’s or 70’s casino heist movie plot – the following failed casino heist was actually rather ingenius and I for one am surprised it hasn’t been used in any movie scripts since. Two physics students at the University of California built a computer tiny enough to fit into a shoe and programmed the computer to read the wheel movements. That computer, worn by one student, then transmitted signals to the other player’s shoe so he could make a winning bet. Sounds ingenious? You bet! But while they were a creative pair, their ideas far surpassed their execution – the computer short-circuited more than once, each time leaving the unlucky cheater with a burnt sock, the smell of burning polyester and a nasty electric shock. As you can imagine with all these small issues, they eventually got caught and sent to jail.

Anthony Carleo
One a cold December morningin 2010 a man armed with nothing but a handgun and wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into the Bellagio casino and left with a bag containing $1.5 million in gambling chips.

Now if this heist had happened before 2000 it might have been a pretty impressive heist and who knows, he may have even gotten away with it. Sadly for Anthony Carleo(the son of a Las Vegas Judge) this was not the case and he really should’ve asked for cash.

Since the early 2000s,the top Vegas casinos (yep, even the ones that are no longer there) have put tracking devices on the highest-denomination chips, and the Bellagio was no exception. Since he wasn’t able to cash in any of the chips he stole, the only takeaway that the thief got from his endeavor was bragging rights – and brag he did, till the day someone reported his exploits and the police came knocking.

Soboba Casino
Ronaldo Luda Ramos was a security employee at the Soboba Casino in Las Vegas. By his own account, he watched one casino heist movie too many. After watching Ocean’s Eleven Ramos decided to attempt his own grand heist, attacking two colleagues and making off with $1.5 million in 2007. Turns out that Ronaldo is also in the running for the moron of the year award as well as he didn’t account for CCTV footage which was his eventual undoing – an unforgivable mistake given that he was the one responsible for installing the CCTV cameras in the first place. Epic fail much?!

If you want to beat the casino without smelly socks, motorcycle helmets and CCTVs then just jump over to the online casino world where the return to player rate is more generous, the game choices are more varied and the chances of taking home a major jackpot are dramatically higher. Now THAT’S what I call a successful casino heist. Click here to see our list of recommended online and mobile casinos. Read the reviews, check out the free games and then decide for yourself where to play.